Safeguarding State Assessment
States should consider key safeguards to maintain strong assessment systems, in case the U.S. Department of Education can no longer enforce ESSA.
Read MoreCategory: Large Scale
To Adapt or Not to Adapt? That Is the Question
Deciding whether to use adaptive or fixed-form assessments depends not on what technology can do, but on what you want the system to achieve.
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Don’t Start With Assessment: Navigating State Involvement in 21st Century Competencies
Before states jump into assessing 21st century competencies, they need to step back to consider some key tradeoffs and questions.
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Assessment Must Follow Curriculum and Instruction
We talk a lot about—and aim for—balanced assessment systems. But we’re still not paying enough attention to the instructional core.
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Changing State Assessments Won’t Improve Student Learning
If we want students to learn more, we must engage them with good teaching and meaningful content.
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Rethinking Assessment on a Shrinking, Shifting Landscape
We need systems that acknowledge the demographic shifts and data blind spots that make it harder to tell the story of student learning.
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Statewide Assessments Are Critical for Informed Public School Choice
As public school choice expands, state tests play an increasingly important role: providing a common benchmark to help families evaluate their options.
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Using Reference Data to Inform Standard-Setting
States must consider setting standards when they launch a new test, revise their content standards, or make other changes that could influence assessment comparability.
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Evolving Expectations for Fairness in Testing
Comparing the two most recent versions of The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing shows the field’s changing conceptions of fairness.
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Score Reporting Isn’t Enough: What Comes Next Matters
Test score data could be more useful if we built a constellation of supports and resources that helped users see their next steps.
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The Secret to Making Policy Stick: Getting the Advice You Need
Policies don’t implement themselves. Three key advisory groups can help states move from concept to classroom.
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The Challenges of Assessing 21st Century Competencies
A new report from the Center explores the challenges of assessing 21st century competencies and offers practical advice.
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Assessment Score Reports Must Get Better!
Two relatively easy changes in states’ assessment score reports can go a long way toward helping users understand the results.
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Test Security: Expanding Our Ideas to Support Score Integrity
Test security has typically focused on preventing, detecting and acting on irregularities. But it should also support fairness and equity.
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Through-Year Assessment: The Importance of Score Reports
Score reports are crucial to a through-year assessment system. We interviewed users of Montana’s new system to see how they interpreted and planned to use information from score reports.
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“This Test Is Instructionally Useful.” Where’s the Evidence?
Companies often say their assessments are instructionally useful, but they rarely provide evidence to support those claims.
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Assessment Consequences Matter: A Look Back at RILS 2024
Our annual conference asked an important question: How do we minimize the unintended negative consequences of assessment for individuals and systems?
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Shifts in Student Enrollment: Should They Affect Test Score Interpretations?
Schools that experience pronounced enrollment shifts should consider their impact when interpreting achievement patterns over time.
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